1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of workspace service connections and workspace ventilators, and in particular to a stand-alone workspace unit that provides service connections without any ducted connection to building ventilation equipment.
2. Prior Art
The prior art includes various systems in which service connections are made through modular partitions, desks, and other workspaces. U.S. Pat. No. 4,353,411-Harter et al discloses a system in which heating, ventilation and air-conditioning connections are provided through a central column. Ventilated walls, panels, desks and floors are shown in various U.S. patents, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,789,747-Wasserman et al (wall panel), 4,015,397-Flachbarth et al (electrical service), and 3,462,892-Meyer (medical utilities). Such devices are useful for providing a convenient connection to utility services which can be shared among adjacent workspaces.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,856,981-Boundy, electrical lines originating in a hollow ceiling are routed through a central flexible conduit to electrical terminal connections provided in a wall member. That patent discloses electric wires including telephone wires disposed in the conduit to connect a convenient location on the wall panel, adjacent the floor, to such services.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,698,104-Sutton involves a portable study carrel, in which a plurality of angularly-spaced workspaces with table or desk space are defined by partition walls radiating from a central hexagonal column. This device uses the inside of central column to house film projectors. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,378,727-Doss, a system of carrels are provided with ventilation equipment whereby the carrels are connected by means of various ducts to the ventilation system of the building in which the carrels reside.
None of the foregoing disclosures, including Doss, teaches a portable service connection column that is suitable for providing convenient service connections and also ventilation connections that are effective in cooperation with, but otherwise independent of a building's heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems. None discloses the benefits of an independently controllable zone unit that is not attached to the building HVAC equipment by air ducts.
Modern electronic data processing equipment, although improved over earlier equipment, still releases a substantial amount of heat. Moreover, computers and such equipment are coming into more and more frequent use in office environments of all kinds. Such systems require a number of electrical connections for powering the electronic units and may also need wires for connecting the units to one another such that they communicate together or with a centralized data storage device such as a disc memory. In the aforesaid patent to Harter, a hollow floor houses a connection for building HVAC supply, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,366,364-Curran, a general purpose hollow floor having integral conduits is disclosed. Hollow floors and the like are very useful and effective for housing utility lines and means for communication, especially electrical ones. The drawbacks of the hollow floor arrangement are that the hollow floor represents quite a large expense, and once terminal openings or receptacles are located in the hollow floor, it is normally difficult or impossible to relocate work areas.
A typical office or clerical establishment only seldom has the luxury of substantially refitting its workspace or designing its office space to accommodate future needs for utility connections, data processing communication connections and the like in permanently-installed conduits or hollow floor conduits. Instead, the typical establishment is located in rental property adapted for general purpose use, and not provided with any particular connections or conduit-carrying means.
As data processing terminals become more common, a general purpose office space may find not only its available conduits, but also its ventilation system overpowered. Hollow dropped ceilings are often used instead of hollow floors, to accomodate haphazard electrical routing and the like. Electrical connections that are "dropped" from the ceiling, for example on semi-permanent electrical columns with one or more electrical power receptacles mounted thereupon, are inexpensive and popular for providing power connections. The relative versatility of such power connections contrasts sharply with ducting for ventilation equipment. While additional electrical lines can be run through ceilings, etc., to accommodate additional loads (perhaps with the requirement of upgraded service to permit additional current flow at the incoming utility connection), increases in heating ventilation and air conditioning loads present problems. Adding ducting involves more space and weight than electric wires.
If a business establishment located in an older rental property or a general purpose space desires to install word processing or small computing machinery for some of its work areas, the added generation of heat by these units may possibly overpower the heating ventilation and air-conditioning systems of the building and probably will overpower the system at least in localized areas, for example at word processing sections, in which heating loads are localized.
One cannot readily relocate air ducts in a workspace. The localization of electrical loads precludes practical application of the capacity of a building ventilation system to overcome the localized build up which can occur at concentrations of heat sources. Furthermore, building codes define certain standards for flow and noise in ventilation equipment whereby even if there is space it is often not possible to simply add additional air flow ducts and outlets onto existing ventilation devices. Even though the prior art has arrived at a number of ways of bringing electrical service to localized work areas and has also provided connections to interface workspace to building-wide heating, ventilation and air-conditioning equipment, the need remains to accommodate localized areas of heat build up without unduly multiplying the number of conduits, connections, ducts and access ways around an office.
Considerations of protecting non-smokers from smokers (and vice-versa) suggest that ventilation should be as complete and as individualized as possible. The need to avoid undue ducting and other such ventilation to building heating, ventilation and air-conditioning equipment weighs against the need for individualized ventilators. Some states have not enacted rules and regulations that prohibit smoking in general work areas. IF smoking is to be allowed, the areas must be ventilated.
A modern trend in office furniture and layout uses small, semi-private working cubicles, which may be occasionally relocated. The cubicles are partitioned using low (5-6 foot) partition panels. Preferably, the workspaces are efficiently small. Unfortunately, these cubicles are even more prone to concentrate and localize heat. Such prior art systems have been less than adequate.
The present invention provides direct electrical utility connections and individually-controllable ventilation for a plurality of workspace cubicles associated with a central core in the form of a hollow vertical column or cabinet. Workers located around a column have individually-controllable fan intakes into the column, to remove excess heat and/or smoke from their workspaces. This ventilation load from the grouped workspaces is centrally-filtered and discharged above the low partition walls defining the workspaces. The centralized discharge tends to mediate and offset local concentrations of heat in the work areas of the group, air at an average temperature being then released into the common ventilated area. The building heating system, which is not directly connected to the ventilation system of the invention, can be operated at a rate according to the average. Inasmuch as no ducted connections need be made to the building heating system, it is not necessary either practically or under the building codes, to increase the airflow capacity of the building system or to change any existing ducting. These benefits are provided with full individual control of the ventilation in individual work areas.
The ventilating center core unit according to the invention is preferably polygonal in plan view, for example triangular, square, hexagonal, octagonal, etc., being attached to ends of vertical partitions extending radially out from the polygon to divide the surrounding area into workspaces. These center core workspaces groupings may be closely spaced adjacent one another and connected to vertical service columns providing electrical, telephone and other power and communications facilities connecting, for example, to the ceiling or floor. On the electrical connections need be centralized, these being made accessible by terminal receptacles, plugs, etc., mounted in the workspaces. Ventilation requirements are individualized at the work stations, and centralized by action of the center core ventilators.